Here's how the "almost daily" contests (ADC's) work now that I've had a chance to see what I can expect.

Almost daily means that I don't have the time or the energy to come up with and grade entries every 24 hours. Also, if a contest only lasts one day, the number of entries will fall rapidly. Not may people come to these boards daily, even fewer have time to create an entry on such short notice. A weekly contest is too long for the simple tasks I'm planning on, so the timeframe of the "almost daily" contests will be between 2 and 4 days.

There will be three difficulty levels when I can manage it, but possibly not. A fourth skill level may be thrown in just for giggles too. The four levels will be thus:

Beginner: You've started learning C/C++, written a few programs, but for the most part see yourself as a newbie. You ask more questions than you answer.

Intermediate: You know your way around C/C++'s more commonly used features, have written a couple of nontrivial programs and don't ask as many question as you answer because you can either find the answer, or already know it.

Advanced: You consider yourself an expert in the language syntax and are comfortable with the idioms and tricks. You're most likely a professional or a talented amateur. You rarely ask questions and when you do, they typically only have one or maybe two replies because not many people know the answer.

l33t: You're a 1337 haX0r that can do anything and everything. Or you're anybody else that wants an odd challenge.

You aren't required to only submit entries for your skill level because that wouldn't be fun.

Entries will be graded on four categories unless explicitly stated otherwise:

Correctness: 0-10
Speed: 0-10
Elegance: 0-10
Portability: 0-10

The first ADC will be graded on these four even though I said otherwise in the task descriptions. My mistake, I was still getting a feel for grading entries.

In the event that there are two winning entries, the one that was submitted first will take the prize. In extraordinary cases, a category may be given a score higher than 10. This indicates a truly wonderful entry, whether it be far faster than expected, or a work of art in elegance.

All entries will be posted for everyone to see and reviewed by the judge or judges. If you don't like your code shredded to ribbons, it's recommended that you get a program like lint or don't participate. :) However, having harsh code reviews can be very beneficial, so I hope that everyone can tolerate my pedanticism.

ADC's will not overlap. This saves me the confusion. So the next ADC will come out a short time after the previous one, depending on how long it takes me to develop the tasks.

Finally, suggestions are most welcome. If you have a task suggestion, PM me with it.

[Note]
This post will be edited as I solidify what the ADC is and does.
[/Note]

08-10-2003

Prelude

I'm now taking applications for a code reviewer for ADC contests. Handling every bit of the contest is very draining. Please PM me for further information or to request the job.

12-29-2003

curlious

Wish I wasn't a newbie so I could help out. Sounds like it's going to be fun and a great learning experience!

04-07-2004

heat511

Quote:

Originally Posted by curlious

Wish I wasn't a newbie so I could help out.

yeah same man

actually... i may fall under intermediate... not too sure. i just learned tierinary (sp?) operators and can't wait to throw those in some apps.

04-07-2004

Lurker

Quote:

Originally Posted by heat511

actually... i may fall under intermediate... not too sure. i just learned tierinary (sp?) operators and can't wait to throw those in some apps.

:rolleyes:

05-16-2004

Shazi

how i can participate in c language contest

hi,
tell me how can i participate in c language contest, tell me the procedure. do reply me, i m waiting.

08-29-2004

chaitanya

how can i send answers to the questions raised by others.

08-29-2004

sean

The exact same way you just asked that question.

09-12-2004

Hunter2

>>I'm now taking applications for a code reviewer for ADC contests
I'd love to do it, but I'm underqualified and overbusy. I could maybe help out once in a while though.

09-12-2004

Vicious

I could help with the noobie contests.

I even have a few good contest ideas!

:P

09-12-2004

Prelude

Feel free to start one up if you feel the need. I'm too busy to take my Contest Master duties seriously these days. :(

09-14-2004

Stack Overflow

This sounds pretty cool. I have been programming for about 6 years, with 3 years of C experience. I could always help out. I'm not a guru none the least, but I do know alot about the langauge and have written data conversion programs, game engines, and much more.

I could help Vicious with his ideas if seen fit, or even bring some to the table myself. I'm an every-dayer here, so I could even submit some codes for the contest ;)

Just my two cents,
- Stack Overflow

09-15-2004

quzah

I had a great idea for something fun to do, but unfortunately, the beast that is the sig engine ruined it for me. You see that line right above your sig? That was to be the top edge of a maze. So I wrote a maze generator, which gave me the following output:

It would have lined up perfectly (on a character basis), and that line would have formed the top wall.

However, it seems that:
a) The sig doesn't preserve white space.
b) The sig is in some obscure font.
c) The line is in some obscure font and sice.
d) The font tags have stopped working in the sig.
e) Replacing the spaces with periods doesn't help, because characters aren't a fixed size in the sig.

And so my idea was ruined. I was going to post the sig, and start a contest thread on it. Two contest actually:
1) A basic contest to generate a maze to fit that line as the top of it.
2) A harder contest to see if you could get the code for your maze generator to fit in the 500 character requirement for the sig space.